Golf is a recreational game that involves repeatedly striking a ball with a club that is swung along an arcuate path. When the ball is struck by the club, the ball will typically become airborne to traverse a particular flight path/trajectory, and may have a particular spin rate.
In conventional golf ball design, a plurality of dimples are included on the outer surface of the golf ball in an effort to create a generally more stable, and longer flight trajectory when properly struck. The interaction between the dimples and the oncoming airstream affect the lift, drag, and flight stability characteristics of the ball; however, the consistency of these effects is dependent on the even distribution and/or symmetry of the dimple pattern around ball.
Golf balls are formed from polymeric materials that are typically injection molded or compression molded into a spherical shape. In either of these molding processes, two molds (two halves of a mold) may meet at a common interface, and may cooperate to define a void that forms the exact shape of the ball. Using understood injection molding or compression molding techniques the ball may be formed within this void. When the ball is removed from the molds, the ball may have molding flash or other excess material that may have been formed at the interface between the molds. As such, the molding flash may be located at or proximate to the “equator” of the golf ball.
Molding flash must be removed prior to engaging in a coating process to apply a surface coating to the golf ball. In conventional processes, the flash may be removed from the ball using any combination of cutting, grinding, sanding, tumbling with an abrasive media, and/or cryogenic deflashing. These processes are exceptionally easier and more consistent to perform when the flash extends only from a flat, non-dimpled portion (i.e., a “land area”) of the ball. As such, the common interface between the molds may define a seam line that circumscribes the ball, and which is devoid of dimples. As noted above, this profile may affect the flight pattern of the ball if not properly designed or accounted for.